Mark Webber: F1's elder statesman remains outsider

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit – Mark Webber speaking to reporters in Sao Paulo ahead of his final Formula One race at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Paddock life – "I wouldn't say I'm happy in the Formula 1 paddock," Mark Webber told CNN. "It's an environment that's not always real. You can click your fingers for food, for whatever you want really. But for me, I always try to ensure that I treat people as I'd treat myself.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Pole in the Principality – Mark Webber led the way from pole on the way to his eventual victory at the Monaco Grand Prix -- his first win of the season.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Monaco moment – Webber takes a post-race dip as the Red Bull team celebrate another Monaco GP triumph in May. It was the second time in three years that Webber had won the sport's prestigious race.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Champagne supernova – Red Bull's Australian driver Mark Webber celebrates after winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone -- his second victory of the 2012 season. The Australian held off Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in a close battle to win the race.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Red Bull's golden boy – Webber is very much the understudy to double world champion Sebastian Vettel, who is seemingly on his way to a third consecutive world title.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Red Bull politics – Vettel has long been nurtured by Helmut Marko, titled a motorsport consultant at Red Bull but the eyes, ears and mouth piece of team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, and a figure Webber has not always seen eye to eye with.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Red Bull reward – Two days after his second win of the season at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix, Webber penned a new deal with Red Bull Racing, extending his contract with the team to the end of the 2013 season.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Ferrari interest – Before extending his Red Bull contract, Webber had talks with Ferrari over a possible switch to the Italian team. "Ferrari approached us first," said the Australian. "Things happen for a reason and it feels I'm staying here for the right reason. We made the decision just before Silverstone when both teams seemed pretty interested. I'm happy with that decision."

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

On your bike – Webber's first love was for motorbikes, and he used to race them as a youngster, before turning to go-karts when he was a teenager.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

It's go time – Webber switched to karting as a 14-year-old and the move paid instant dividends as he won his state championship in New South Wales. The Australian describes the medium as "very raw."

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Big break – Webber started off in Formula One as a test driver for the former Bennetton team in 2001 and got his big break in the form of a race seat with Minardi the following season.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Straight from the kart – Webber still looks fondly upon his time as a go-kart driver and recently took to the seat again as part of the Red Bull Kart Fight event in Japan.

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Photos:Mark Webber: From kart to cockpit

Home is where the kart is – Webber says: "Karting is the best way for you to get a feel of how to race each other, dealing with the competition, dealing with winning, dealing with losing and you soak it up so much at a young age and learn very fast."

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Story highlights

David Campese provided Webber with interest free loan in the early in his driving career

Webber came close to winning world title in 2012

He talked to Ferrari earlier this year before opting to stay with Red Bull for next season

In 2013 Webber could be the elder statesman of F1 with Michael Schumacher retiring

The excesses of Formula One do not sit easily on the shoulders of Mark Webber.

The venue for the latest addition to the F1 calendar, the Circuit of the Americas, cost in the region of $400 million. It was built from scratch on 890 acres of unused land in Travis County, just a few miles from Austin, Texas, with the primary aim of returning a United States Grand Prix to the sport for the first time since 2007.

In the paddock over the next few days, wealth will ooze from every pore, champagne glasses will clink from all corners of the team hospitality suites as money pours into the sport from global sponsors.

Webber's life as an F1 driver is in sharp contrast to his upbringing in Australia. The son of a motorcycle dealer, he grew up in New South Wales in relatively modest surroundings. His dad Alan, a regular at race weekends, has always done his utmost to keep his son grounded -- he still does, even if at 36 he is one of the oldest drivers on the grid.

So while other drivers slot easily into the F1 lifestyle, Webber is in some regards the sport's outsider, brought up on watching the news at home every night with his father and far more immersed in current affairs.

Paddock life

It's a background that has left Webber junior almost a tad embarrassed by an annual salary at Red Bull thought to be in the region of $8 million, which still leaves him some way off the top earners in the sport but still generous enough in an austere age for much of the globe.

"It's difficult and a lot of the time it doesn't feel right when you've got the global financial crisis or something like Sandy hitting the U.S.," Webber told CNN.

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Mark Webber back in the go-kart

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Photos:F1's strangest race?

Schumacher wins race of six – The US Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2005 was won by Michael Schumacher. But the race is remembered less for his victory, than the number of starters -- just six cars, rather than the normal 20.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Crash controversy – A puncture during practice caused Ralf Schumacher's Toyota to crash at the banked final turn -- the fastest part of the track -- sparking the controversy that led to so few cars starting the race.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Tire trouble – Toyota used Michelin rubber and, after further investigation into the tire failure, Michelin advised the seven teams who used their tires -- Renault, McLaren, Williams, Toyota, BAR, Sauber and Red Bull -- not to race.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Farce unfolds – At the end of the parade lap, the seven Michelin teams peeled off into the pit lane -- leaving only Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi to contest the race.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Bizarre race – "I can clearly recall my heart sinking when one car after another peeled into the pit lane," said BBC commentator Maurice Hamilton.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Fan fury – "The fans were incensed -- and rightly so," added Hamilton. "While the mood in the paddock was a mix of bewilderment, silent anger and resignation."

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

A testy relationship – With motorsport fans left feeling so shortchanged it nearly drove Formula One out of the U.S. for good.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Ecclestone action – When the contract for the U.S. GP expired at the end of 2007, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone chose not to renew his deal with Indianapolis for the following season.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

Bittersweet track for Barrichello – In 2002 Michael Schumacher suggested he had conceded victory at Indianapolis to his then teammate Rubens Barrichello as a gesture of thanks after he had overtaken the Brazilian under Ferrari team orders to win the Austrian GP.

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Photos:F1's strangest race?

U.S. GP back on track – The forthcoming U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas will be the first F1 race to be held in the country since 2007.

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"I wouldn't say I'm happy in the paddock. It's an environment that's not always real. You can click your fingers for food, for whatever you want really. But for me, I always try to ensure that I treat people as I'd treat myself.

"It's not always a world that sits well with me but to drive the best cars in the world, that's where I have to be and I want to keep doing that."

Webber's journey into F1 has been more arduous than most. Initially a ball boy for rugby league side the Canberra Raiders it soon became clear that motorsport was his passion: his idols were F1 star Alain Prost and champion American motorcyclist Kevin Schwantz -- who, incidentally, worked closely on the creation of the Circuit of the Americas.

The Schwantz route looked the likelier initially for Webber as he began racing on two wheels before a switch to karts aged 14, then made his mark in various single-seater formats: Formula Ford, Formula and Formula 3000.

He was 26 years old before he made it into F1 -- a year older than teammate Sebastian Vettel is now, who is on the cusp of winning a third straight world title -- making his debut at his home race in Australia for backmarkers Minardi in 2002.

Phone-a-friend

Getting there had been no means easy.

Having relocated to the UK in his teenage years to pursue his racing ambitions, he lived hand by mouth for much of the time, before a most uunlikely knight in shining armor came in the form of Australian rugby legend David Campese.

Webber's compatriot stumped up an interest-free loan of £52,000 ($82,000) to keep the driver's career on track at a time when the money had finally run out.

"My dad played rugby with Campo when they were young so it was a sort of phone-a-friend thing and we felt maybe he'd get an idea of what we were trying to do. I gave it everything and it did the trick. Without that, I wouldn't be here, so I owe him a lot."

The bank balance is much healthier these days, but Webber is never allowed to forget how far he has come by his partner Ann Neal, who has also managed his career for as long as he has been in the UK.

"I remember when I got my first paid contract, which was 7,000 German marks [from Mercedes in the FIA GT Championship], I said to Ann 'I've made it'," he recalls. "She still reminds me of that 14 years later - still takes the piss out of me for it.

Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Red Bull in the big city – New Jersey was originally scheduled to stage Formula One's inaugural Grand Prix of America in June 2013, and Red Bull took its RB7 car over to the state of New York one year early to test drive the streets.

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Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Going off road – Former F1 driver David Coulthard was behind the wheel for the 2012 visit, causing a stir as he sped through Liberty State Park.

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Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Tunnel vision – Last-minutes checks were made before the RB7 sped through the Lincoln Tunnel, which connects Weehawken, New Jersey and Manhattan.

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Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

The beast below – While the Hudson River flowed above, Coulthard tore through the tunnel below at speeds of up to 190 miles per hour.

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Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Lady Liberty – Coulthard burns rubber, while the Statue of Liberty can be seen poking through the thick cloud of smoke.

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Photos:Red Bull Racing takes on New York

Free-wheeling in Weehawken – The grand prix, which will not be held in 2014 either due to funding problems, was supposed to run through the New Jersey township of Weehawken.

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"My dad's exactly the same so, between them, I can never get that ahead of myself. I think with some drivers, they do change as people. I'm not going to name names but I've seen that in Formula 1.

"It's important for me to be able to look back and think I've not changed too much and I have no regrets about the way I might have changed.

"A lot of these guys get tattoos. I'm not a tattoo sort of guy. I try to be as consistent as I can as a person from my late teens to my mid-60s. I try to keep it real."

Mr Reliable

It's that consistency at the wheel that is arguably Webber's key selling point.

Last season, bar one race retirement he never finished out of the top five as he completed 13 of the 19 races in third or fourth place.

On his day, he is blisteringly quick, dominating both race weekends at Monaco and Silverstone this year -- his two race victories to date in 2012.

Similarly he was flying in 2010 and, on the verge of a hat-trick of wins, when he and Vettel famously crashed in Turkey, leading to a sense of ill feeling within the team.

That animosity has long since evaporated but, despite protestations in public to say otherwise from team principal Christian Horner, Webber is very much the team's understudy.

Vettel has long been nurtured by Helmut Marko, titled a motorsport consultant at Red Bull but the eyes, ears and mouth piece of team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, and a figure Webber has not always seen eye to eye with.

"Everyone can see where Helmut's allegiance lies," says Webber.

"He's very, very powerful and that's something that will always be the case. But there are two cars and I have the opportunity to drive one of them."

Which perhaps explains the exploration of a switch to Ferrari and drive alongside Fernando Alonso.

There were very serious talks for Webber but the move would have been a similar one - playing the part of understudy to Alonso.

Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

In focus – Red Bull's Mark Webber is one of the biggest names in Formula One. The Australian has vast experience on the grid but the origins of his motorsport career lie in go-karts.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

On your bike – Webber's first love was for motorbikes, and he used to race them as a youngster, before turning to go-karts when he was a teenager.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

It's go time – Webber switched to karting as a 14-year-old and the move paid instant dividends as he won his state championship in New South Wales. The Australian describes the medium as "very raw."

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Big break – Webber started off in Formula One as a test driver for the former Bennetton team in 2001 and got his big break in the form of a race seat with Minardi the following season.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Straight from the kart – Webber still looks fondly upon his time as a go-kart driver and recently took to the seat again as part of the Red Bull Kart Fight event in Japan.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Senna's seal of approval – Legendary Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna was a huge fan of go-karting, right up until his tragic death in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994. The three-time F1 champion still raced karts right up until his death, according to Webber.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Back to my roots – Webber still thinks go-karting is the best way for young drivers to learn about motorsport and see if they have what it takes to progress. Webber is pictured with a group of karting kids in Melbourne back in 2006.

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Photos:It's go kart time: F1's breeding ground

Home is where the kart is – Webber says: "Karting is the best way for you to get a feel of how to race each other, dealing with the competition, dealing with winning, dealing with losing and you soak it up so much at a young age and learn very fast."

"Ferrari approached us first," said Webber. "Things happen for a reason and it feels I'm staying here for the right reason. We made the decision just before Silverstone when both teams seemed pretty interested. I'm happy with that decision."

World champion hopes

Webber has repeatedly been on a one-year rolling contract at Red Bull leading to conjecture that each year will be his final year.

Whether that's the case in 2013 remains to be seen but the reality is that his last hopes of becoming world champion have probably disappeared

The best opportunity was in 2010 as Webber arrived in Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season among one of four drivers capable of winning the championship only to be upstaged by Vettel.

He insists returning there for the last race was far from uncomfortable for him.

"I didn't lose the championship in Abu Dhabi so that's not a problem at all, it wasn't mine to lose," he says and dismisses the tag that he might be the nearly man of the sport.

"The world title's still something I'm aiming for, something I believe I can do. I wouldn't bother turning up if I didn't think that."

Last year proved a tough one for Webber.

His driving style was not suited to the off-throttle blown diffuser, which Vettel used to such devastating effect en route to 11 wins in a truly dominant season.

It made Webber's stock as a driver fall although he rectified that with a victory at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix and far more assured performances this season.

"I like the car a lot more," he says. "I really didn't like the blown floor and it proved a very difficult car for me. I didn't have a great feel for it and getting the right set-up was hard for me.

"This year has been much better, well better than last year but not as good as 2010. I don't like making excuses but last year I was making plenty of them. Not so this year.

"But this year I needed the perfect season to win the championship, I know that, and that just didn't happen. I'll get another chance next year."

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First corner fracas – Jenson Button leads while his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton has made contact with the rear of Romain Grosjean's Lotus.

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Dangerous collision – Grosjean's Lotus is flipped upwards after the initial collision and is about to be catapulted into the air.

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Going airborne – Grosjean's Lotus is about to fly over the red Ferrari of championship leader Fernando Alonso.

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Flying Grosjean – A dramatic view of Grosjean flying over cars on the first corner of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Down to earth – Grosjean in the Lotus has cleared Alonso's front wing and is about the come to ground.

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Crash chaos – In the ensuing chaos Hamilton, Alonso and Sauber's Sergio Perez are all caught up in the crash and their race is over.

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Angry Hamilton – A disgruntled Hamilton gestures in the direction of Grosjean after being taken out in the first corner incident at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Victorious Button – A delighted Jenson Button was left to celebrate his 14th F1 career victory after a superb performance in the Belgian GP.

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Photos:Webber seals Monaco Grand Prix triumph

Photos:Webber seals Monaco Grand Prix triumph

Royal congratulations – Mark Webber receives the winning trophy from Prince Albert II of Monaco after his superb victory from pole.

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Photos:Webber seals Monaco Grand Prix triumph

Early drama – Red Bull driver Webber leads the way but behind him Romain Grosjean forces Michael Schumacher to go wide in an early clash.

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Photos:Webber seals Monaco Grand Prix triumph

Flying Kobayashi – Kamui Kobayashi of the Sauber team goes airborne in spectacular fashion at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Millionaires' playground – A view of the track from the harbor area of Monte Carlo which is part of the tight street circuit for the Monaco Grand Prix.

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Photos:Webber seals Monaco Grand Prix triumph

Cool winner – Webber takes a post-race dip as the Red Bull team celebrate a third consecutive Monaco triumph.

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Red Bull had looked off the pace for much of the year but are now clearly the team to beat, drawing a footballing analogy from Webber in the process.

"It's like the Premier League," he explains. "You have Manchester United, Manchester City, the top teams. But at the start of the year, you have teams that get promoted that are right up there at the start of the season but, as the season goes on, they don't have the players on the bench to sustain that. It's the same in Formula 1."

Mortality

Despite having spent virtually half his life living in the UK, Webber still remains very true to the land of his birth.

Arguably he slots into the Aussie stereotype, his off-season ambitions involving beers and barbecues, and every other sentence in conversation is laced with the word "mate".

He seems to have a greater sense of mortality than his younger peers and understandably so.

There have been some shocking accidents, one at Le Mans in 1999 and another in an F1 car at Valencia 11 years later, in which he flipped violently on both occasions but survived in one piece.

Both are worth watching just for the incredulity that he actually walked away unscathed. Then there was the cycling crash in 2008 in which he was left with a shattered leg after being hit by a car.

Looking back, he says: "The leg has never been the same again but I'm not a marathon runner so it doesn't stop me doing my day job.

"I feel incredibly lucky as I know it could have been a very different outcome. So often, you feel invincible in F1.

"The Le Mans crash was the biggest deal of all of them. I really remember it even now. My sister had just had a baby and I was thinking about her and also thinking 'mate, you're too long'. Flipping in the air lasted an age, so there was lots of thinking time. Thankfully it wasn't my time to go."

As he approaches the end of his 11th season in F1, the same could be said of his career in top-flight racing.